This invention relates to munitions deployed in line charges. In particular, this invention relates to line charges having shrinkable exterior sleeves over tubular fabric strength members that hold explosive charges and detonating cords.
The use of line charge systems by the military to create safe lanes in mine and obstacle fields is well known. Usually, these systems are launched from a relatively safer launch point by a rocket that pulls the line charge out of a container to fly downrange and drape over obstacles and mines. The number of explosives in the line charge is detonated a short time later to clear a path.
Various designs of the air-launched line charge systems have evolved, and have shown varying degrees of effectiveness. Some designs cannot withstand the rigors of deployment and fail, or the air-launched line charges don't go where they are intended to go. Many are incapable of detonating reliably. One thing that most designs do have had in common, however, is that the manufacturing processes for the concatenated arrangements of explosives and detonators were labor and/or tooling intensive. Consequently, the complicated manufacturing processes not only made contemporary line charges too expensive but also compromised their reliability.
Thus, in accordance with this inventive concept, a need has been recognized in the state of the art for cost effective manufacturing processes for rocket launched line charges of warheads used for obstacle and mine clearing as single dimensional line charges or two dimensional distributed arrays.